ATTENTION Michigan Association of Middle School Educators & Friends: MAMSE is putting together a bus for the trip to the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN this fall. Ride down to the conference in a luxury bus with satellite access for Twittering, Facebooking, and other 21st Century technology access for less than $100.00. With all the conversations with middle school teachers on the bus, I wonder if we could call this a mini-MAMSE conference? There’s nothing like getting together with people who love the people we love: our students. (Some of you thought I was going to say something else!) Getting together with folks like that is energizing and priceless. Email Teresa Sutherland for information and details. Don’t forget to mention you heard about it on Middle School Matters.

paulallison What are the 5 most important habits that you want students to practice in your classroom every week? Post your answer back to him both here and on Twitter.

Vote on iTunes!

Letters from our Listeners:

Hey guys

In a conversation with another teacher in a K-8 building, I mentioned that cursive may no longer be relevant in our schools. Now I’m sure this statement flies directly in the face of readin’, ritin’, rithmatic’ purists whose cursive alphabet adorns the space just above the blackboard in a typical elementary classroom. And I’m not suggesting that we abandon the teaching of cursive letterforms. But I gave some thought as to when I actually use this practice, and I realized that I never use cursive unless writing a signature. Everything I ever write can be successfully accomplished by either printing or typing. As a matter of fact, I see a growing practice of electronic signatures being used in lieu of any writing at all. This is more prevalent due to documents making their way to intended destinations via email, electronic forms, etc.

This raises a question about how much time we dedicate to the practice of pen to paper versus fingers to keyboard. I facilitate a professional development workshop for teachers that describes the use of good typography as a tool to better reading engagement and comprehension. As a former graphic designer before becoming a teacher, I had to know the “hook” factor of type on a page. If kids (or adults) don’t like the way it looks, they are less likely to read at all. And if they do read, they are less engaged, with less comprehension of the text, when improper type practices are followed. Therefore, the proper use of font, style, placement, and spacing have been shown through research to impact the effectiveness of the message.

My point is this: word processing, keyboards, and digital technologies are not going away. We are moving more quickly every day to a world of electronic communication. Just take a look at the Amazon Kindle or the Apple iPhone as examples. Even text to speech software has now reached an over 95% level of accuracy. And none of these trends point to the use of cursive. So do we abandon the analog form of pen on paper for the tapping of keys with our fingers, or in some cases, thumbs? It certainly won’t be anytime soon. But we do need to consider dedicating more time to teaching students necessary skills with technology, such as proper keyboarding within work processing, that is certainly critical to their future achievement. Now is the time to embrace and support our K-8 technology teachers and not give any credence to the alarming trend of cutting or limiting their programs.

Keep up the good work, and I appreciate your open-mindedness to the “bigger picture” in education.

Ron

News:

Gov. Mitch Daniels wants to radically transform the way Indiana teens are taught by converting all of the state’s high schools to a hands-on, high-tech approach by the time he leaves office. In every class at a New Tech high school, students work in groups to solve challenges and work on projects rather than learning through lectures. A teacher may present only one or two lessons a week.http://www.indystar.com/article/20090310/NEWS04/903100357/1013/NEWS04

Findings from a study involving 160,000 Chicago high school students offer a cautionary tale of what can happen, in practice, when school systems require students to take algebra at a particular grade level.Findings from a study involving 160,000 Chicago high school students offer a cautionary tale of what can happen, in practice, when school systems require students to take algebra at a particular grade level. The Chicago school district was at the forefront of that movement in 1997 when it instituted a mandate for 9th grade algebra as part of an overall effort to ensure that its high school students would be “college ready” upon graduation. “It’s not surprising that you’re going to see an increase in [failure] rates if you raise the instructional requirements and you don’t raise the supports,” said Michael Lach, the director of the school system’s office of high school teaching.
The researchers calculate that, for a school that saw an increase of 20 percentage points in algebra enrollment due to the requirement, for example, the percentage of 9th graders failing math would increase by 3 percentage points for students in the lowest-ability quartile, 3.5 percentage points for students in the next quartile, and 8.9 percent for students in the quartile of students who were labeled to be of “average” ability.

The U.S. has set as a national goal the narrowing of the achievement gap between lower income and middle-class students, and that between racial and ethnic groups. This is a key purpose of the No Child Left Behind act, which relies primarily on assessment to promote changes within schools to accomplish that goal. However, out-of-school factors (OSFs) play a powerful role in generating existing achievement gaps, and if these factors are not attended to with equal vigor, our national aspirations will be thwarted.

Therefore, it is recommended that efforts be made to:

Reduce the rate of low birth weight children among African Americans,

Reduce drug and alcohol abuse,

Reduce pollutants in our cites and move people away from toxic sites,

Provide universal and free medical care for all citizens,

Insure that no one suffers from food insecurity,

Reduce the rates of family violence in low-income households,

Improve mental health services among the poor,

More equitably distribute low-income housing throughout communities,

Reduce both the mobility and absenteeism rates of children,

Provide high-quality preschools for all children, and

Provide summer programs for the poor to reduce summer losses in their academic achievement.

NMSA08

Motivating Underachieving Students
Instruction in Support of Success with Every Child
Mike Muir
3:45-5:00
Meaningful Engaged Learning

http://www.mcmel.org/workshops/

Click on Workshops for presentation

9 Essential Elements of Meaningful Engaged Learning:
4 Categories:
Relationship – the single most important place to start.
“I won’t learn from a teacher who doesn’t like me!”

Don’t judge them too quickly.
Don’t think of kids as bright, dumb, etc but rather Hard to Teach & Easy to Teach
This can change by class too. A student who is easy to teach for one teacher may be hard to teach in another class.

We should judge the success of our schools not on the easy to teach students, but on the hard to teach students.

What gets in the way of hard to teach students?

Enthusiasm & Humor:
Treat them “As If”
They are smart
You like them
You must be the grown up. Even if they don’t “deserve” the as if……

1.Relationships
2.Feedback – Helping students succeed
1.Unimportant to kids
2.The most influential
3.Assessment FOR learning
3.Hands-on Active Work
1.Our brains were not designed to be in school, our brains were designed to experience things (Patterns & Schema).
Schema – “Eating in Fancy Restaurant” we know how this works and how it is different from fast food, etc. Allows for efficiency. We don’t have to remember everything, but just a few details.
2.More hands on can lead to more reading not less. The reading becomes more meaningful.
4.Variety and
1.Think of Multiple Intelligences. Which two do most people have has a strength?
Bodily/Kinestic, Visual/Spacial
Which two are most commonly taught? Verbal/Linguistic & Mathematical/Logical
Bodily-Kinestic – Parts of Speech – Do the gesture whenever we get to a specific part of speech (eg. pat their head whenever they got to a noun).
5.Motivation:
1.Take responsibility
2.Should do it
3.It’s their job
4.

Why would they want to? This is an important question.
Learning is like whales feeding. Everything goes in and we keep what we want. Party analogy of having a good conversation and not hearing the background noise until something specific catches your ear.
5.Our Mistake: “Just in case education”
Tie Into Student Interests
Making it Interesting.
Adjectives in a bag. Something is in a bag. The kids pair up and only that pair can look at it. The students then use the sense only to write descriptive words to get the rest of the class to guess.
6.How can Extrinsic Motivation be as powerful as Instrinsic Motivation?
Avoid Bribery Rewards.
There are good extrinsic motivations. We do things for a variety of reasons, some of them are extrinsic. (eg. paychecks)
Bribery (rewards) has temporary desire effect.Shuts down learning. Leads to people doing the minimum, goal shifts to reward (killing the interest).
Random rewards are good. Pizza example. Done after the fact and they don’t know that it is happening. Don’t make it a pattern. Bad for cognitive effect but OK for behavior.
7.Give students Choice (Autonomous Supportve Strategies)
This can be external motivation that is as powerful as instrinsic
Not “Do What you want” but limited to choices.

8.Meaning
1.What are two most frequently asked questions?
1.Why do we have to learn this?
2.When are we ever going to use this?
9.Context (Rigor & Revelence)
Velcro Brain
Drama
Metaphors & Examples
Bloom’s Taxonomy Revised
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyze
Evaluate
Create
Psychology says that we need to start at the upper level of Bloom’s. You need to create in order to remember, understand, etc.
10.Learn in Context & Real World
Isolated Islands of Learning (kids do better taking tests in the class that the learned it).
Paragraph example:
Warning: Simple but not easy.
TV Repair man example. (The repair costs $100. The buyer asks what was wrong. Replaces a .05 screw. The guy complains. The repairmen explains, the screw costs .05 cents. Knowing which screw was $95.95)

From the “Kids aren’t so different” files: “Pipefiddle: Why is it when the temperature goes above 40 middleschool kids insist on wearing flip flops? It really isn’t that warm you know.” Yup, totally agree.

Advisory Activities:

National Middle School Association’s Month of the Young Adolescent is looking for artwork for the upcoming October celebration. The deadline is March 16th for submission.

My Week in Three Words. ABC has a weekend segment that shows off viewers’ video describing something about themselves or their week in three words. The submissions are short and could be fit into a slide show which could be made using Animoto. Clips wouldn’t necessarily have to be sent to ABC but could be shown on closed circuit within the building.

News:

National standards—once the untouchable “third rail” of American education policy—now have the backing of the nation’s governors, a growing number of education leaders, and the U.S. secretary of education. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said he wants the federal government to be “a catalyst” for the development of national standards, and wants to support the NGA and other groups working to set them. “We want to get into this game, … and I’m not leading this game,” Mr. Duncan said. Proposals for such standards are now gathering support, unlike previous attempts to nationalize standards and testing. The recent endorsements of national standards have emerged, in part, because critics say the patchwork of state standards under the NCLB law set inconsistent goals for reading and math. In those two subjects, supporters say, educators should be able to agree on common standards.

The agreement among governors and education policy leaders suggests to some observers that the development of national standards, in some form, is inevitable.

“The question is much more how it will happen,” said Bruno V. Manno, a senior program associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore and a political appointee at the U.S. Department of Education under the first President Bush. “Will it happen in a haphazard way, or will it happen in a thoughtful way?”

A recent study reports that high school students who study fewer science topics, but study them in greater depth, have an advantage in college science classes over their peers who study more topics and spend less time on each. The study relates the amount of content covered on a particular topic in high school classes with students’ performance in college-level science classes. The study also points out that standardized testing, which seeks to measure overall knowledge in an entire discipline, may not capture a student’s high level of mastery in a few key science topics. Teachers who “teach to the test” may not be optimizing their students’ chance of success in college science courses, Tai noted.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305131814.htm

NMSA08

http://poms6c.wordpress.com
www.pinoak.us
Can we have have students use Google Docs? Revision history. Checking without taking papers home.
Use Google Spreadsheet for tracking Parent Contacts?
Take Google Spreadsheet and turn it into forms. Use the Create New Form function.
Presentations can be shared on line with a chat function.
Presentations can also be collaboratively worked on.

NMSA’s Middle Level Essentials Conference April 23-24, 2009. Robert Balfanz will be keynoting. He has done a bunch of research on 6th grade transition factors that has been cited by NMSA.

“Robert Balfanz is a research scientist at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University and associate director of the Talent Development Middle and High School Project, which is currently working with more than fifty high-poverty secondary schools to develop, implement, and evaluate comprehensive whole-school reforms. His work focuses on translating research findings into effective reforms for high-poverty secondary schools.

Balfanz has published widely on secondary school reform, high school dropouts, and instructional interventions in high-poverty schools. Recent work includes Locating the Dropout Crisis, with co-author Nettie Legters, in which the numbers and locations of high schools with high dropout rates are identified. He is currently the lead investigator on a middle school-dropout-prevention project in collaboration with the Philadelphia Education Fund, which is supported by the William Penn Foundation.

Balfanz received his PhD in education from the University of Chicago.”

New NMSA resource: http://www.nmsa.org/u_rd/022009/gradNation.htm NMSA has partnered with America’s Promise to disseminate a resource to middle schools about the dropout crisis in today’s high schools. National Middle School Association

“Dear NMSA Member,

One-third of all students and half of minority youth—a startling 1.2 million kids—fail to graduate high school each year. Many of those who do graduate lack the basic skills needed to succeed in college, work, and life. With this many children at risk, our nation is at risk. We need your help to stem this tide.

As part of America’s Promise Alliance, National Middle School Association is pleased to present you with Grad Nation, an evidence-based guidebook to help you increase the high school graduation rate in your community.

We invite you to use this first-of-its-kind “road map” that has the latest data, best practices, and tools for meeting your specific high school dropout challenges. In addition to the research-based guidance for addressing the crisis, Grad Nation also includes ready-to-print tools and links to additional online resources. Available to all free of charge, this online resource can be found at: www.americaspromise.org/gradnation.

Authored by Robert Balfanz, Ph.D. and Joanna Honig Fox from the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, and John M. Bridgeland and Mary McNaught of Civic Enterprises, Grad Nation presents a compelling case for a broad cross-section of all organizations and individuals to get involved.

Although there is no silver bullet for reducing the dropout rate, we know which approaches work, and this guidebook is the first ‘one stop shop’ for anyone who wants to assemble the best set of approaches that will impact the problem, including information on public policies proven to help reduce the dropout rate.

As leaders of middle grades education, we must continue to set an example and inspire others to take action to strengthen our schools and keep our young people on the path to success. The Alliance formally unveiled this tool on February 10, 2009. Please join me in supporting Grad Nation as a valuable new resource.

Shout outs:

Will Richardson, thanks for getting us all excited about your impending visit to Jackson . . . MS! not MI . . .

“I have just started listening to the MSM Podcasts. I download them from iTunes U and listen to them on the way to work. Today I am home with a sick child and I am listening to a marathon of MSM, spending my day with Shawn and Troy. lol.

I am a special education teacher at the secondary level and have shared the MSM link and iTunes U info on the podcast with the tech department for my school to distribute to the school, because MSM highlights and covers content that isn’t limited soley to the middle school level.

MSM is an incredible resource for newbies to the tech world. . . like me. . . because Troy and Shawn provide a thorough and comprehensive review of current education, technology, pedagogy and its practice information available from a variety of sources.

Listening to Shawn and Troy at MSM has “elevated the level of my game” so to speak. They are thoughtful and thought provoking in their content and coverage of material. . . all provided with a good dose of . . . humor!”

Thanks Jenny! We appreciate your spreading the word!

Webspotlight:

History Before and After Humans
Shows an overview of the development of Homosapiens and the potential future of humans.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7348103/

It is a guidebook that provides a road map to help communities tackle the dropout crisis. It is designed to help communities develop tailored plans for keeping students on track to graduate from high school, prepared for college, work and life. Grad Nation is a natural outgrowth of our local summit work to ensure that solutions are developed to put our youth on a path to success.

Grad Nation also includes ready-to-print tools and links to additional online resources, in addition to research-based guidance. It provides information and tools for developing and implementing a customized program that’s right for individual communities.

http://www.americaspromise.org/APAPage.aspx?id=11796

News:

Like other teachers spearheading ambitious collaborative units, Smith’s two-pronged approach to managing the Monster Project — developing his students into self-directed learners while also harnessing technology tools to help keep things on track — has allowed him to smoothly complete complex projects while maximizing student learning opportunities. “Teachers are only successful if they understand how to manage the project cycle,” notes Bernie Trilling, global director for education strategy and partnerships for the Oracle Education Foundation, which emphasizes project learning.

It started back in third grade with polite letters from the school principal to the East San Jose couple: Your daughter has had a series of unexcused absences; please contact us. Back then, Carol Reynoso and Jayvee Geronimo’s youngest attended school about 80 percent of the time. Now, Vanessa said she’s willing to do anything if only the court would spare her mother from jail, including face her worst fear — school. “I’m willing to really try this time, to go to school,” said Vanessa, whose family says she was mercilessly teased about her weight. “I know I’ve said that before, but I mean it.”

Patrick says that public education has struggled to incorporate technology into schools and just adding computers piecemeal is not enough to engage students. Educators properly trained to use the Internet and digital tools can teach in a traditional manner and have unlimited resources at their fingertips. Online learning can also help create more personalized learning plans for each student.
http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2009/02/patrick-speaker-spotlight.html

NMSA ’08 Conference Sessions

The Teacher
“Concerning a teacher’s influence, I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates and climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to mae a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can e a tool of torture or an instrumnt of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or deescalated, and a child humanized or dehumanized.” – Haim Ginott
Dress Code – Music by Monte Selby
Lion Taming 101
Be Proactive!
Seating charts
We want teaching to be seamless. No child or teacher should stop the learning process.
Decide what battles you’re going to fight.
Things that are nitpick level, shouldn’t be at the “rule” level.
Practice procedures and routines.
Establish non-negotiables
Lee Cantor’s method can escalate this to an impossible situation.
Don’t get into it with a child in front of the other students.
Stay on your feet and move around the room.
Find your own “rhythm for management”
RESPECT the students.
Taking Inventory
Please answer the question. There are no right or wrong answers. What you write will be held in confidence.
1. What is your full name? What do you like to be called? Why?
2. List 5 words that describe you.
3. List the people that live in your home(s) and put 2 describing words after each name.
4. What is your favorite thing to do at school?
7. Do you like to read? Why or why not?
10. Write your own question and answer it.
Tips for Successful Communication With Students
Do not begin instruction until all students are focused and attentive.
Be sure your voice and body language are consistent with your words.
Use direct eye contact and simple hand gestures to redirect off-task or inappropriate behavior.
Use clos proximity and a quiet voice to make reminders and censures personal and private
Be warm and friendly, and be firm.
Idea: Hall Moms & Pops: Folks in the hall during passing that talk to the students. Some have erasers, pencils, etc.
Offer choices of behavior so that you control the direction they go. It also helps them because they can’t come up with choices on their own.
Write notes or emails to students to let them know how much you appreciate them.
Why Students Misbehave
To gain power.
To get attention.
To seek revenge.
To avoid failure
Adapted from Catherine Neale Watson, Middle Ground
They are bored.
You as the teacher are obligated to be engaging, not necessarily to be entertaining.
Things to consider before you react to a disruptive student
Does the student feel the he is not being respected or losing face?
Is it possible that this student really ..
Could this be about your own need to win?
Could have you misinterpreted the situation?
Have you confronted the one who wasn’t the primary instigator?
Behavioral Journal Sheet
Student’s Name ___________________
Class/Period ____________________
I violated our class code by :
I chose to do this because:
A more appropriate choice would have been:
This is how I feel about whathappened:
This is what I plant o do in the future to prevent a recurrence of y actions
This is how my teacher can help me implement my plan:
Student signature and teacher comments:
Individual Behavior plan
Student name, etc.
long-Range goals for the student:
Short-Range goal for the student:
What student will do to meet target goal:
What teacher will do to help student meet that goal:
What Parent ill do to hel reach that goal
What are the consequences?
Positive recognition will be made with _____ of successful behavior.
Rose poem:
When we plant a rose seed in the earth … -Timothy Gallaway.
Secret Password: iamateacher www.debbiesilver.com
CEU: FB3
Selected notes from Drumming to the Beat of Different Marchers

Cooperative Learning
Businesses are moving to this model because together they remember more and can do more than alone.
Students can utilize their own strengths

What did 1 math book say to the language arts book?
Why did the middle schooler bring a ladder to school?
Which word is always spelled incorrectly?
What is a pirate’s favorite subject?

* Want the answers? Just listen to the show.

Items, Events, Calendar, Eclectic Stuff (truc et chose)

Alightlearning is looking for votes and support for a software venture that will incorporate technology and education. They are competing for a $10,000 grant to start-up their venture. Generalized information is available on the website.

MIT Vocab Contest!: Have your students produce a video defining standard SAT vocabulary words. For every 5 videos uploaded one iTunes download will be awarded up to 1000 downloads per the event in total. In other words, get ‘am in early and often if you’re looking for the iTunes motivator. Only 1000 available for the entire WORLD! Oh, and check out the website.

NMSA is looking for nominations for the Board To nominate yourself (or Troy) click here or go to the NMSA’s main page.

Five questions for Arne Duncan. Well, maybe from Arne Duncan. Steve Hargadon has posted the five questions Arne Duncan would like answers to at a teacher’s round table discussion. Carol Broos has them posted on her blog. Here are the five:

1. What is the one most important education issue you wish Secretary Duncan to focus on during his tenure and why?
2. How shall the tenets of the No Child Left Behind act be altered or invigorated? What are its positives? How can its negatives be improved?
3. How should the new administration respond to the nation’s need for better prepared and more qualified teachers?
4.What should the new administration do to increase student engagement in mathematics, the sciences and the arts?
5. How should funding equity issues be addressed?

Go on a virtual field trip! Land of Lincoln has the Lincoln White House, a typical town, the CSS Hunley, and several other biographical items related to the Lincoln Administration in Second Life. Use a screen shot recorder (like Snapz Pro) to record a tour to show in class as a virtual field trip. The Bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth is February 12, 2009.

Second Life notices:

1/11 ISTE Island Wolverine Island Tour 6 pm SLT. Meet up at ISTE HQ.

1/17 ISTE Island Basic Skills Workshop check the calendar for time and place.

From the email bag: “Cafe 101 is starting up a new semester! New speakers, new events and a few new teacher tools in the 2nd floor freebie shop! Come and take a look at Virtual Texas State Technical College’s new sim design while you’re here.
Play some Una (Uno) on the Cafe roof with a friend, and test your skills at Memory! Have a great Spring Semester, Everyone! Cafe 101: Get Your Learn On.”

Discussion of Social Networking and Education:
1. Use by Teachers for professional development
2. Use by classrooms
3. Use by students

Web Spotlight: Animoto: Grab all those pictures you took in Advisory (you did take some, didn’t you?) and throw them into Animoto. Let groups of students pull together music they’d like to set the pictures to and let Animoto do the rest. Thousands of possible combinations let each group’s work turn out different with the same base material. What a great way to motivate the kids through the dark winter months.

News:Are We Testing Kids Too Much?

As a third-grader last year at Portage’s Amberly Elementary School, here’s what Cole took:

• The Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests, which involves more than eight hours of testing during two weeks in October.

• The Standardized Test for Assessment of Reading, a computer exam given four times annually to determine his grade-equivalent reading level.

• The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test, administered three times during the school year to check reading progress.

School Officials: Cuts needed to pay teachers
While districts across the state have explored the idea of a four-day school week, and state officials have tossed it around as a possible cost-cutting measure, most superintendents say the minimal savings isn’t worth the disruption.
The district also wants to redesignate money set aside for summer school, then conduct a less expensive summer program through online courses.
http://www.thestate.com/statewire/story/641683.htmlBudget Pain Dampening K-12 Effortshttp://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/07/16session_ep.h28.html?tmp=1659392755

More and More, Schools Got Game
The logic for the importance of improving school mathematics programs is reasonably unassailable. But the problems with mathematics in the United States are just as clear. A depressingly comprehensive, yet honest, appraisal must conclude that our typical math curriculum is generally incoherent, skill-oriented, and accurately characterized as “a mile wide and an inch deep.” It is dispensed via ruthless tracking practices and focused mainly on the “one right way to get the one right answer” approach to solving problems that few normal human beings have any real need to consider. Moreover, it is assessed by 51 high-stakes tests of marginal quality, and overwhelmingly implemented by undersupported and professionally isolated teachers who too often rely on “show-tell-practice” modes of instruction that ignore powerful research findings about better ways to convey mathematical knowledge. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR2009010301556.html

Teaching Intangibles With Technology
Teach students some facts, and they learn for one exam at a time. Teach students to think and they learn how to learn for the rest of their lives. Ambitious work from European and Israeli researchers is making it easier to help students learn to think for themselves. This is exciting stuff for teachers.http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090106083838.htm

The Art of Revision (702)

Board Quotes:
Writing makes our thinking visible for ourselves and others. – unknown
Feed your brain with words. Read till your eyeballs fall out – Wilson Rowls
A writer takes a sentence, cuts it within an inch of its life, adds a clause, tucks in a few adjectives and then – when it can hardly stand up – hacks away at it again. It’s hard work and don’t let anyone tell you its’ not – Helen F. Brassel
The writer is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know. – Annie Dillard
You have to do a lot of bad writing to get the good writing. – Don Murray
Writing is long periods of thinking and short periods of writing. – Ernest Hemingway
It is perfectly okay to write garbage as long as you edit brilliantly. Until you have something down on paper, even if its terrible, there’s nothing to work with, nothing you can improve – C.J. Cherryh
Use as many words as you need and not one you can live without. R. Jordan
The best stories are not written, but rewritten. – Scott Willis
Show, don’t tell. Writing and reading are acts of discovery. ‘Telling’ robs a story of the feel of discovery – Rick Jones
Regard your writing as literature – unknown
Poetry is fewer words that say more. – unknown

Carol A. Josel
Bio: Has a smart big sister.
Valerie went to Yale, Cornell, and Penn. Valerie is also an artist.
Two things I could do: Swing by my head and get nose drops on the green velvet sofa.
Good advice: You need to find something that you’re good at.
University of Maine started as a nursing student.
Didn’t do well in Organic Chemistry.
She has a free e-newsletter. Please sign up for one.
She has a blog!
Journaling
Kids should journal everyday on a topic or on themselves.
Have a writer’s journal of your own.
Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn 10 times.
Stars: We twinkle in the cold sky air we are there all night if you try to pull us down we will burn a hole in your pocket.
Ralph Fletcher- “Writing becomes beautiful when it becomes specific.”
Maniac Magee example.
Ralph Fletcher’s book: Adam (descriptive language, speciific)
Write what you see, not what you’re supposed to see.
Example: stapler
It’s not a stapler. It’s a small paper viper, dangerous to paper, and only harmful to humans if they poke at it and provoke it to anger. You can tell when it has struck by the two tiny holes in the corners of papers.
Play “This is not a …”
Adjectives and adverbs can clutter up a piece of writing.
Example: “Very gradually, it go really, really windy. The wind blew a lot.”
Revised: “At first there was just a breeze. Later that afternoon, though, a cat blew by my window.”
In the journal put favorite words
Lollipop
Smack
Revision activity: Fold paper in half make two columns. Left side put the first word. Right side put the verbs from each sentence.
Good way to check for the 23 non-action verbs.
Find great leads to read to students.
Leading Types:
1. Leisurely: “The first week of August hangs at the firey top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the seat of a Ferris Wheel when i paused in its turning. The weeks that came before are only a climb from the balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless and hot. it is curiously silent, too, with blank white downs and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night, there is lightning, but it quivers alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.” – Tuck Everlasting.
Thought shots
2. Beginning at the end.
3. Introducing the narrator
4. Unreiable narrator
5. Starting in the middle:
6. A sound effect:
7. Dialogue
Now its our turn in the packet.
Practice Leading: Directions: Here are some 8th graders’ leads. Consider them carefully, deciding on their effectiveness. Then its your turn …
Topic: The German invasion of Poland which triggered WWII. A loud roar echoes throughout the Polish countryside, the clear blue sky quickly turning black with billowing clouds of smoke. (Kelly Ballady) See packet for more.
Practice: Roach Facts Make a lead from the facts.
Was Kafka wrong? Imagine what you could do in the Olympics if you could run 90 miles per hour! You’d stay at a roach motel be able to eat a Danish and, if injured, regrow lost appendages.
Barry Lane activity: Twenty questions.
starter: There was this dog.
Students ask questions about the dog with no yes/no questions.
Find the best sentence in lot and use that as your leading sentence.
Carol’s ideas for making writing an everyday expected activity:
1. Message each other frequently by leaving notes on pillows, desks, mirrors, wherever.
2. Make letter writing a habit for all, sending them to friends, relatives, even Santa.
3. Write your autobiography as a gift to your child.
4. Have your child write an annual “Year in Review”–an ongoing record of your lives.
5. On birthdays, give written gifts of family stories and recalled moments.
6. Send postcards to each other—without going anywhere. We all love mail.
7. Make the sending of thank you notes a must for everyone.
8. Keep a family journal, a record of your lives over time—and include captioned photos.
9. Writing letters to the editor keeps the juices flowing.
10. Promote journal writing—and respect privacy.
11. Encourage your child to write and perform skits or puppet shows. Think Popsicle sticks.
12. Contact Student Letter Exchange for pen pals: 516-887-8628; www.pen-pa.com

Ideas considered for Chicago Public Schools: an all-gay high school, pay students for grades, and boarding schools.

Advocates longer school days.

Alightlearning is looking for votes and support for a software venture that will incorporate technology and education. They are competing for a $10,000 grant to start-up their venture. Generalized information is available on the website.

MIT Vocab Contest!: Have your students produce a video defining standard SAT vocabulary words. For every 5 videos uploaded one iTunes download will be awarded up to 1000 downloads per the event in total. In other words, get ‘am in early and often if you’re looking for the iTunes motivator. Only 1000 available for the entire WORLD! Oh, and check out the website.

Stupid Spam that got stuck in the filter: “Hello! All would like to congratulate on coming Christmas!” Thanks buddy … from Russia. We worked hard at it this year. Spammer of the Week: maf-ioz.ru (Address has been slightly altered.)

#1 “Remember that motivation is as important as ability. Keep the focus on motivation. Without hard work, talent is of little service.”

#19 “Station sticky-note reminders on bathroom mirrors, doors, and other easy-to-see places. Goals require a due date. Well placed reminders help the process.”

#37 “Establish a ‘Drop Spot’ for gathering all school materials at day’s end. A bedtime reading book and the lunch that’s waiting in the refrigerator are the exceptions. This way everything is hassle-free and ready to go in the morning.”

#67 “Advise keen attention to the ending. It is as important, if not more so, than the lead. It must satisfy or it will leave the reader disappointed with the whole piece.”

#88 “Provide after-school ‘down time.’ A dose of physical activity and a nutritious snack, such as peanut-butter smeared apples, provide the energy needed for the upcoming homework/study session.”

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts,a store-bought roaster, or package of pre-cooked chicken
one package of frozen peas and carrots, thawed
one 10-oz can of cream of chicken soup
one store-bought pie crust, such as the Wholly Wholesome brand
Steps to Take:
1. If not using pre-cooked or roaster chicken, cook chicken breasts in pot of boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes.
2. Chop chicken into cubes.
3. Mix chicken with thawed peas and carrots.
4. Stir in can of cream of chicken soup.
5. Place mixture in Pam-sprayed pie plate.
6. Top with pie crust.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until crust is golden.

News:All’s Fair in Middle School Scramble:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/education/26fifth.html?_r=1
In the quest to find the perfect middle school for her 10-year-old daughter, Aimée Margolis has zig-zagged across Manhattan for 11 school visits, grilled pre-teenagers at a school fair on music classes and the preferred attire at dances, and compiled a dog-eared folder full of notes.
Then there is the bathroom test. Ms. Margolis casually slipped away for what appeared to be a quick pit stop. She carefully occupied a stall, waited for a cluster of students to walk in, and listened.
Unlike another school, whose impressive tour was undercut by a dismal bathroom test in which Ms. Margolis heard students poking fun at teachers, making grammatical mistakes and using “trash mouth,” Clinton’s bathroom-goers revealed themselves to be articulate, friendly nonswearers who at least momentarily refrained from gossip.Too much testing cuts into learning

THE GOAL of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993 was to make schools more accountable to their neediest students and to the public. Students must demonstrate competence by passing an English and math test, the MCAS, in order to graduate from high school. But now, passing merely two tests is no longer enough, and an ever-increasing number of tests and retesting opportunities has been imposed upon school systems. Consequently, testing has transformed urban schools into testing and test preparation centers.
The Department of Education requires high schools to schedule 28 days of testing, amounting to 15 percent of the 180-day school year.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/12/25/too_much_testing_cuts_into_learning/Storybooks On Paper Better For Children Than Reading Fiction On Computer Screen, According to Expert
Clicking and scrolling interrupt our attentional focus. Turning and touching the pages instead of clicking on the screen influence our ability for experience and attention. The physical manipulations we have to do with a computer, not related to the reading itself, disturb our mental appreciation, says associate professor Anne Mangen at the Center for Reading Research at the University of Stavanger in Norway. She has investigated the pros and cons of new reading devices.
Mangen maintains that reading on a screen generates a new form of mental orientation. The reader loses both the completeness and constituent parts of the physical appearance of the reading material. The physical substance of a book offers tranquility. The text does not move on the page like it does on a screen.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081219073049.htm

The LEAGUE’s Knight Scholarship Competition:The KNIGHT scholarship is a national scholarship competition where 3 students will receive $5,000 each for their writings or reflections on civic experiences in one of three categories: Persuasive Essay (building awareness and inviting action for change in your school, community or the world), Personal Narrative (experiences with service and volunteerism), or News Story (creating newspaper articles that reports acts of service and volunteerism by young people). The scholarship is open to high school seniors from all over the country, even students who are not part of a LEAGUE classroom can apply!The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfoundation.org) promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1954, the foundation has given more than $300 million in journalism grants. Applications will be posted at www.theleague.org beginning January 5th. Students must submit their applications before the March 6th deadline. For more details about The LEAGUE and the KNIGHT scholarship please visit www.theleague.org.

See the folks who attended NMSA08 this year and left a message on the virtual wall at SchoolTube! Videos are posted for you to either relive the experience or get a taste of the convention from the folks who attended.

Algebra on YouTube:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j27byHk1EAb3KhBo1ePXyg0h7rogD950NKS80
YouTube is perhaps best known for its cavalcade of homemade performances and TV clips, but many people like Nissim are turning to it for free tutoring in math, science and other complicated subjects.
Nissim typically scours the video-sharing Web site for clips of bands and comedy skits. But this time she wasn’t there to procrastinate on her homework. It turned out YouTube was also full of math videos. After watching a couple, the psychology major says, she finally understood trig equations and how to make graphs. (Khan clip)

Blogs Wikis, and Podcasts: Book related to this session. Will Richardsonhttp://willrichardson.wikispaces.com for the notes to this session and the links.
Provide feed back at the discussion space of the wiki.
Begin with stories about kids to contextualize.
1. Laura Stockman (Buffalo, NY)25 Days to Make a Difference is her blog.
This turned into 10 months of making a difference.
All the conversations are monitored by Mom and Mom makes the posts.
This site is blocked at her school.
2. Sara’s Story
She texts over 600 messages a day.
The point: She has a learning network that is local. That is if we use the technology to make it learning.
Schools response
We don’t let them blog.
We don’t let them text.
We don’t let them use the technology that they are already are using.
The web is now a Read/Write Web technology today.
The Big Shift is coming in access to this technology and how it is being used to engage students, either for good or evil.
Book: Here Comes Everybody: How Digital Networks Transform Our Ability to Gather and Cooperate by Sharkey
The Techtonic Shift: This changes the game, think Printing Press and its impact on Western Civ.
We cannot escape this group forming ability provided by the Web.
Will Richardson is an upset pubic school parent because his children are not being prepared for their future.
8,000 affinity groups within the Obama campaign which in essence is the platform of the campaign.
This gives the members power of choice within the groups and in the campaign and as a result empowerment. (Local control)
Kansas State Rep running for office:
Kid put up a post about needing a “group” and got an average of $8.19 per donation and a total of $90,000 for his campaign.
Newspapers aren’t going to survive in the current business model.
Christian Science Monitor is going web based totally.surfthechannel (The TV guide to illegal content on the net.)
Can go to see all the tv channels of the world.
Pick your tv show and you can watch.
Based in Sweden. Different Laws Apply!
Amazon.com
Businesses are about groups with common interests.
People read the posts about the product to make a decision on purchase.
Book: Wikinomics (The more you share, the more you get)
Facebook
“For Mike” A social spot to grieve for a fallen friend.
Kids are going home to unfiltered worlds. Ironically we’re doing harm by not giving them the opportunity to fail.
Learning is changing.
His blog (as example).
Clustr-Web Traffic tracker
Each dot becomes someone in his group and someone he can learn from.
www.fanfiction.net Write a new chapter to the book that you really like.
Twilight. Harry Potter
Kids are going to be Googled during their lifetimes.
We need to teach them the best way to do this without exposing them to the damaging things of social networking.
Social networking is not inherently a bad thing.
Richardson wants his kids found on the net as a networking tool.
We’ve been Datelined to death on the dangers of the internet.
Clarence Fisher and his blog.
Teaches his kids how to blog and as a result increases their learning opportunities.
Learning is changing.
Text 46645 to text google to find the answer to a question.
Why are we asking kids to memorize information when they could use a device to find it more rapidly.
Joke: Give an open phone test!
Content is not scarce, it is ubiquitous.
MIT has every course online for you to take. (MITopencourseware)
Teach content evaluation skills and then turn them on to other content sources to learn and bring to the classroom.
Content is not static anymore.
Wikipedia.
Considers this the most important website on the the net at this time.
Content has been proven to be current, accurate, and dynamic.
Textbooks are not dynamic enough.
We need to teach in hypertext environments.
FLYP media.com www.flypmedia.com
Making our classrooms with “thin” walls.
Learning is a everywhere experience.
Yugma- tool for ?
Flat Classrooms project.
Teachers are everywhere, we need to help our students find them and identify.
Key advantage: Create a web page or blog and kids will use the experience to learn from their productions.
Willow Web (Radio WillowWeb)
Kids become invested in the learning. They do real work for real audiences and create real learning in the process.
Its not enough to just do a paper on it.
Challenge: What’s stopping you from doing this stuff in your own personal learning environments?
Think about this as building networks and not just a transfer of what we did on paper to now doing it on the web.
How are you going to build your Map?

The LEAGUE’s Knight Scholarship Competition:The KNIGHT scholarship is a national scholarship competition where 3 students will receive $5,000 each for their writings or reflections on civic experiences in one of three categories: Persuasive Essay (building awareness and inviting action for change in your school, community or the world), Personal Narrative (experiences with service and volunteerism), or News Story (creating newspaper articles that reports acts of service and volunteerism by young people). The scholarship is open to high school seniors from all over the country, even students who are not part of a LEAGUE classroom can apply!

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfoundation.org) promotes excellence in journalism worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 U.S. communities. Since 1954, the foundation has given more than $300 million in journalism grants. Applications will be posted at www.theleague.org beginning January 5th. Students must submit their applications before the March 6th deadline. For more details about The LEAGUE and the KNIGHT scholarship please visit www.theleague.org.

See the folks who attended NMSA08 this year and left a message on the virtual wall at SchoolTube! Videos are posted for you to either relive the experience or get a taste of the convention from the folks who attended.

Congratulations to Lorri MacDonald who was honored by the State of Michigan as the Michigan Virtual University Teacher of the Year! Dr. MacDonald talked about the future of learning in virtual spaces at this year’s Michigan Virtual University symposium.

Top Ten Signs You are Addicted to the Internet

You find yourself typing “com” after every period when using a word processor.com.

And even your night dreams are in HTML.

All you daydreaming is preoccupied with getting a faster connection to the net: 28.8… ISDN… cable modem… T1… T3…

You spend half of the plane trip with your laptop on your lap… and your child in the overhead compartment.

You finally do take that vacation, but only after buying a cellular-modem and a laptop.

You refuse to go to a vacation spot with no electricity and no phone lines.

You find yourself brainstorming for new subjects to search.

Your eyeglasses have a web site burned in on them.

Your bookmark takes 15 minutes to scroll from top to bottom.

You kiss your girlfriend’s/boyfriend’s home page.

Scientists: Is technology rewiring our brains?
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56280
What does a teenage brain on Google look like? Do all those hours spent online rewire the circuitry? Could these kids even relate better to emoticons than to real people?

Shawn has an Announcement. It’s official! I’m a Friend of Jack! (FOJ)

Is Second Life in decline? Forbes thinks so. Reuters pulls their full time reporter from Second Life.

Heather A Horst: Families and Media Ecology
The MacArthur Foundation sponsored a study which we talked a little about in last week’s podcast. The link is in the Items & Events section if you would like to read the entire document (pdf). Part of the entire report is a section written primarily by Heather A. Horst covering the adoption of media by families. Several case studies are cited and worth the read as examples of the class distinctions and their differences in approach to adoption of new media. Key points worth mentioning from the study:

“… a large share of young people’s engagements with new media-using social network sites, instant messaging, and gaming-occur in the context of home and family life.”

Computers, video cameras, related software and associated training are considered an investment in their child’s future.

New media is leveraged for good behavior.

Parents are a little nervous about this whole thing while learning to embrace it with their kids.

“We begin by concentrating upon the spatial and domestic arrangements that shape new media use in the home, such as the placement of computers. We then turn to the creation of routines and other forms of temporality, including the amount of time and textures of kids’ media usage. In the final section, our analysis centers upon parents and kids’ rules and the creation, bending, and breaking of rules. We conclude by considering how parents and young people transform, negotiate, and create a sense of family identity through new media.”

Parenting in the New Media Ecology

Along with broader social changes comes the uncertainty of a parents role and parenting since the 1960’s.

Parents feel aware and accountable to society at large for their parenting decisions: “reflexive parenting.”

Working class parents:

believe in informal play in and around the house.

use a laissez-faire approach to parenting.

believe that kids will grow and develop naturally as they navigate the world.

value respect for authority and prefer to give children the autonomy to navigate their own relationships with peers.

Middle class parents:

believe that it is their responsibility to develop their children through outside school activities (sports, music, etc.).

cultivate activities and interests in their children.

organize their student’s daily schedule and get involved in the inner workings of their activities at school or other school type settings.

advocate for their students in institutionalized settings.

These attitudes towards parent reflect what kind of media is selected for their students in the home. (Externalizing those previous values).

Crafting Media Spaces at Home

Public Spaces:

Creates a sense of ownership and inherent control over all media devices.

Creating Media Rooms within the house as shared media controlled spaces.

Wealthy families created entirely new spaces for computers.

Other socioeconomic groups “multi-tasked” space for new media to coexist with existing purposes (e.g. the computer is in the kitchen because that’s where the kids do homework while parents make dinner.)

Private Spaces:

Creates that sense of anxiety in parents’ mind akin to the Dateline reports.

Students realize that their bedrooms become partial public space if media are accessible in their rooms (both tv and computers).

Mobility and Other Media Spaces

Students will explore other media experencies, even ones their parents don’t allow at home, when they visit their friends’ homes. They “work the rules” in each place to experience media.

Making, Taking, and Sharing Media Time

Families that structured their media time viewed it as a bonding and relaxing time together.

Some families come together to produce their own media as a form of bonding and staying involved with their kids.

Transmission of values

Gives the kids ownership and some control over their role within the family.

Routines & Rhythms

Parents use of controls on the computer help kids develop media habits.

In single parent homes where there is access at both homes, the parents negotiate a schedule together so the rules are the same in both locations.

In nuclear and extended families, it falls to the mother to be the upholder of morality and new media standards.

Growing up

Parents change and adapt the rules as the student grows chronologically.

Cell phones tend to be given at middle school levels and represent a type of freedom. Its also an easy way to restrict and rein in when students cross the line.

Rules end up as intentions and actual practice turns into a negotiation.

Plans, Minutes, and Cards

What consequences are established for going beyond the boundaries set by parents?

Students that have to purchase their own phones and plans tend to be more discerning about their usage.

Some parents feel it improves communication with their student if they learn how to text on a phone.

Going Online: Bandwidth, Passwords, and Privacy

In lower income families, internet usage is a matter of having the equipment and what level of bandwidth the family can afford in the home.

Not part of the study directly: Thinking about the intense preoccupation with the social domain as transescents, can you imagine the frustration created by a slow connection to a social active student?

Some parents restrict it all together based on negative reports on internet usage and social networking.

Some parents take the modem with them if they leave their student at home alone for a period of time during the day.

Some parents restrict it to the single use it was intended: homework or schoolwork.

While parents control access, students are largely responsible for structuring their online worlds.

Redefining privacy: Parental viewing of a Xanga or MySpace is considered by teens as an invasion of privacy, yet the rest of the world can see it.

Think the “Diary” experience: should parents pick the lock and read the precious pages?

Craig’s list only charges for job listings. Everything else is free to attract interest. The cost of everything else is so low that it works to get them the job listings market.

Trend #4 – Participation

Changing how we do things:
ProAm
ProSumer

Trend #5 – Long Tail (Chris Anderson’s Theory)

Trend #6 – An Explosion of Innovation
Pro/Am Culture
ProSumer Culture

Trend #7 – Age of the Collaborator
Historical periods favor specific traits.
Picture of Microsoft founders from 1978 – would you invest?
Is the age of the resume over? IS it being replaced by your online presence?
The wisdom of the group trumps the expert.

Trend #8 – The world is flat and getting flatter.
Trend 9 – Web is becoming a conversation

First came blogs…
Then came Wikis…
a web page with an edit button.
Level 1 – Publishing

Trend 10- Social Networking
Read /Write
No talent needed. No skill set needed.

Classroom 2.0 Social Network. Classroom20.com
the aggregation of web tools for Building Content.

Analogy of building materials. You could use the building materials to build a casino or a school. It is the use of the tools not the tools themselves.

The Middle Level Essentials Conference will be held at the Red Rocks in Nevada April 23-34. Tell your high school colleagues about the special “conference in a conference” on ninth grade teams.

Crime does not pay! Worried teaching tech skills might open doors to nefarious activities? This creative internetter used Craigslist to create a caper outside a bank in Washington. A suspect is in custody. Bonus points for creativity, not so much for community service content. Considering the recent economy let me also add this: Don’t do this at home.

We’ve compared education and technology to the RIAA and piracy laws. Here’s another take on that conversation for your perusal.

What if we thought of internet access like water, gas, electricity and other utilities? Will Richardson has found an interesting quote from a future Obama official concerning the regulation of the internet and increasing availability in communities across the country. As proposed, the deregulation would increase competition and lower price making it more available to households.

Quote for the week: “In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” – Eric Hoffer

News:Seven Skills Students Desperately Need
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=56127
Teaching to the test is a mistake, Harvard’s Tony Wagner reminded the audience of his Nov. 18 keynote address to the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), because it interferes with transmitting the seven “survival skills” every student should acquire before graduating.
“A lot of people think the skills that students need to learn for the workforce and the skills they need to learn to be a good citizen are two separate sets. But they’re not. What makes a student successful in the global workforce will make a person successful at life,” he said.
Wagner said the problem is that you can have all the equipment and technology you want, but “if you don’t teach kids how to think, how to think beyond multiple choice, you’ve got a problem.”
“I realize education is a very risk-averse sector,” said Wagner, “but assessments either drive instruction for the better or for the worse, and right now in the U.S., it’s for the worse. If our assessments measured performance and 21st-century skills, like the European PISA assessment, that would be another story.”
According to Wagner, students of this generation are not unmotivated; they’re just differently motivated.

“They’re multi-taskers, they are drawn to graphics, they like instant gratification, they use Web 2.0 tools to create, and they love collaboration,” he said. “If we can figure out how to grab their interest in learning, they’ll become great thinkers and be eager to learn the basics.”

Wagner presented a list of seven “survival skills” that students need to succeed in today’s information-age world, taken from his book The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need–And What We Can do About It. It’s a school’s job to make sure students have these skills before graduating, he said:

1. Problem-solving and critical thinking;
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence;
3. Agility and adaptability;
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship;
5. Effective written and oral communication;
6. Accessing and analyzing information; and
7. Curiosity and imagination.

“We are making [Adequate Yearly Progress] at the expense of failing our kids at life. Something has to change,” he concluded.

Tony Wagner’s Web Site (Note that he has a bunch of articles free for download to registered users – registration is free).

Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference, February 19-20, 2009 in Sandusky, OH. Presenter information is posted on the page. Download now and get it it in to your administration while they’re too confused and dazed with the opening of school’s events to say, “No.” (You could argue . . . )

The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE ) Annual Conference will be meeting March 12-13 in Saginaw. Make plans to attend.

The Michigan Department of Education has posted new proposed Tech Standards for K-12 and opened a Zoomerang survey page for posting comments and replies. You can get to the proposed standards directly here and you can go to the survey page here. No one will stop you at the front door of the survey if you’re not in the Great State of Michigan, so have at.

ADVISORY IDEAS NEEDED: NELMS is putting together an Advisory Resource page with lessons for you to use. They are asking for submissions here by January 1, 2009. If your entry is used, you will be entered in a raffle for a 3 day NELMS conference ticket.

Are you a member of the National Middle School Association? You are eligible to join MiddleTalk, a listserv for middle school teachers that engages in middle level “shop talk.” Sign up here.

Join the gang going to NMSA’s Annual Conference by signing up at the Ning site and connecting with other Conference goers: NMSA08 Please do sign up and connect with other conference attendees. Of course, you’re always welcome to post here too . . .

There’s a new research document on counselors in middle schools and the importance they play in our students’ lives. The research summary details the importance of each student knowing one adult well and how to do that before the counselor’s role can become multifaceted. In a way, think of them being the ultimate super Advisory teacher first then counselor. Check it out here.

If you get a chance to visit Second Life, zip over to the ISTE island for their speaker series on Tuesdays & Thursdays. This Tuesday’s topic is PBS Teachers. It begins at 6:00 pm Pacific and is scheduled to end at 7:00 pm pst. Tomorrow will be a SL ISTE tour. Meet at HQ to begin the tour. Check the bulletin board for times and details. Thursday is a social event. The topic is a prelude to Thanksgiving.

NMSA is looking for an editor! Tom Erb was honored at this year’s Annual conference with the John Lounsbury award for his many years of service to middle schools as editor of the Middle Journal.

Case to watch: FCC v. Fox TV. Profanity is defined by local standards. Fox and the FCC went before the Supreme Court on Nov. 4 and argued that definition and the application of the profanity rules are confusing. Look for a definition of profanity, what constitutes offense, and how it applies to free speech to come out of this decision. The next time you write up a kid for profanity I wonder if they’ll use this in their defense while you write up the referral.

Two years ago, school board members across Wisconsin tried to help save teachers’ retirement plans by borrowing money from a European bank in an investment that reportedly promised big profits.Now, these five Wisconsin school districts–Kenosha, Kimberly, Waukesha, West Allis-West Milwaukee, and Whitefish Bay–are suing the investment firm of Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Inc., as well as the Royal Bank of Canada, in Milwaukee County Circuit Court over their $200 million loss. The districts say the investment firm did not fully disclose the risks involved.

An attorney for a suspended Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teacher says she never intended for the public to view negative comments she made about students on Facebook.

She now faces possible firing for listing “teaching chitlins in the ghetto of Charlotte” among her activities.

A 26-year-old third-grade CMS teacher who did not want her name used, fearing reprisals, said the district hasn’t clearly specified what employees can and cannot post on such sites. Most teachers think if they keep their profiles private, she said, they’ll be safe.

Some say teachers can use social networking sites to help students, who communicate regularly online. Others say the risks are too great. They say some cases of teachers having inappropriate relationships with students started with electronic messaging.

Excellence & Equity: Proven Instructional Strategies Close the Achievement Gap
Kagan
Based off of cooperative learning. Pointed out the research that backs up the effectiveness of cooperative learning. One of the issues that Dr. Spencer Kagan addressed was the issue of excellence vs equity. In a traditional method of instruction, the high achievers learn at a higher rate than lower achieving students. Essentially, this leads to both sets students learning, but the most successful students learn more. Practically, this is indicative of the belief that traditional instructional methods are more geared toward those students who are considered “smart”. With cooperative learning, the high achievers and the low achievers both grow, but the low achievers make up some of the gap. Of course, this part of the demonstration was clarified with charts, arrow and diagrams.
Show pictures of a traditional class with hand(s) up vs a classroom where all of the kids are working.

Cooperative Learning vs Traditional – 182 studies – Effect Size .78 – Percentile Gain 28
this talks to excellence but not equity.
Looking at equity, traditional methods (direct instruction) work for both but the high achievers are learning at a higher rate than lower achieving students.
With cooperative learning, the high achievers and the low achievers both grow, but the low achievers make up some of the gap.

Kagan Structures:
Rally Robin:
Steps:
1.Teacher poses a problem to which there are multiple possible responses or solutions, and provides think time.
2.Student take turns stating responses or solutions

Frequent Processing:

Three Step Interview:
Steps:
1.Teacher provides the ____________topic, states the ____________ of the interview, and provides think time.
2.In pairs, Student ______ interviews Student _______.
3.Pairs _________ roles: Student B interviews Student A.
4._____________: Pairs ____________ up to form groups of _____. Each student , in turn, shares with the team what he/she learned in the ______.

Sage -N- Scribe
Setup: In pairs, Student A is the Sage; Student B is the Scribe. Students fold a sheet of paper in half and each writes his/her name on one half.

Steps:
1.The ______ gives the Scribe step by step instructions how to perform a task or solve a problem.
2.The Scribe __________ the Sage’s solution step-by-step in writing, coaching if necessary.
3.The Scribe ____ the Sage.
4.Students _____roles for the next problem or task.

Pairs Compare
Pairs generate a list of possible ideas or answers. Pairs pair and compare their answers with another pair. Finally, pairs work as a team to create additional ideas or answers.

Steps:

Kagan: Teaching the Middle School Brain
• Teaching the Middle School Brain (Stop by the booth for a handout on the session.)
• 1. Principles of Brain Friendly teaching.
• 2. Align instruction with how brain best learns through structures.
• 3. Silly sports & Goofy games that align with brain friendly instruction.
• 4. Deepen our understanding of our 3 pound miracle.
• The quiet signal:
• 1. Raise your hand.
• 2. Full focus attention on Dr. Kagan
• What the brain attends to the more the brain retains.
• 3. Signal others.
• Good brain instruction involves structured interaction and a high level of engagement.
• Structure: Take off, Touch Down
• If it’s true, stand up. If the second statement is true move again.
• Why is it brain friendly?
• It increases blood and glucose and oxygen in the brain to stand up and sit down a couple of time.
• The brain consumes 20% of all the glucose in the body. It is only 2% of the body’s weight.
• Put your two fists together. That’s the size of your brain. Disappointed?
• Brain dendrites fire 200 times per second.
• 100 billion neurons.
• Standing up and sitting down puts more glucose and oxygen in the brain.
• Better nourishment: Frequent muscle movements are important.
• Book: Spark by John J Ratey, MD.
• Evidence for more phys. ed. in the schools to grow better brains.
• Aerobic movement is required.
• Brain attends to Novelty.
• Stand up, Hand up, Pair up
• RallyRobin
• Why is RallyRobin more brain friendly?
• Frequently stop and have students process information.
• Why frequently process?
• 1. More energy for new learning.
• Inhibiting impulses takes a ton of energy.
• 2. Clarify and refine thinking.
• Became aware of what you know and what you don’t know.
• 3. Store in long-term memory.
• 4. Clear working memory.
• It’s what we can hold in our heads at one time.
• Not usually more than ten things.
• Number 11 replaces one of the original 10.
• 5. Engage multiple intelligences and multiple memory systems.
• Episodic memory is the most engaging of the memory systems.
• The brian processes in episodes, something that takes place at a location, has a beginning and an end and a location.
• More brains active
• More brain parts active
• Social Interaction
• Episodic memory
• Team Interview
• Teambuilding
• Favorite snacks
• anything fun will serve as a teambuilder
• Ways to spend $1000.
• Fun things to do after schooll
• Movies you have liked.
• Describe a scene from a movie you enjoy.
• See the Personal Questions page he has prepared. (Sells?)
• Favorites
• Academic content
• Science: View on cloning; inert elements
• Math: Geometry Proof; prime numbers
• Language arts: Verbs; metaphors
• Social Studies: Causes of event; consequences of an event.
• How will I use?
• Interview each other (gambit chips?) and create a 5 paragraph essay based on the information they’ve gleaned from their partners and incorporate transtitions between paragraphs. 3 main paragraphs are based on each of the 3 people interviewed.
• What happened in the brain?
• The amygdalae
• There are 2.
• Left processes tone of voice
• Right processes faces.
• Both sides are threat sensors
• When do they fire most?
• Stranger
• Other race
• Fearful face
• Angry face > Happy face
• out-group > in-group
• Linked to all major parts of the brain.
• Prerontal Cortex
• Decision making
• Emotional Control
• Attention, thinking, working memory
• The Amygdala can shut this down.
• The Amygdalae explain
• Impared learning (high stress destroys brain nerves).
• Silly Sports
• Hagoo: Inuit game.
• If they can make the other person smile, they cross over the line and join their team. Teams are in two lines.
• No touching, can say anything they like.
• Great picture of a “teenage brain”
• What is white matter?
• Myelination of neurons helps them fire 200 times faster.
• The teenage brain is not completely myelinated.
• Independent Memory systems
• There is not one thing called memory!
• Memory Test
• 1 Night
• 2 tired
• 3 wake
• 4 dream
• 5 sleep (not on list!)
• 6 bed
• 7 rest
• 8
• 9
• 10 (slumber)
• Memory pinciple: Memory is not a place it is a process!
• SPEWS & Structures (matrix made by Kagan)
• CEU Code: DS8

Ohio Middle School Association’s Annual Conference, February 19-20, 2009 in Sandusky, OH. Presenter information is posted on the page. Download now and get it it in to your administration while they’re too confused and dazed with the opening of school’s events to say, “No.” (You could argue . . . )

The Michigan Association of Middle School Educators (MAMSE ) Annual Conference will be meeting March 12-13 in Saginaw. Make plans to attend.

The Michigan Department of Education has posted new proposed Tech Standards for K-12 and opened a Zoomerang survey page for posting comments and replies. You can get to the proposed standards directly here and you can go to the survey page here. No one will stop you at the front door of the survey if you’re not in the Great State of Michigan, so have at.

ADVISORY IDEAS NEEDED: NELMS is putting together an Advisory Resource page with lessons for you to use. They are asking for submissions here by January 1, 2009. If your entry is used, you will be entered in a raffle for a 3 day NELMS conference ticket.

Are you a member of the National Middle School Association? You are eligible to join MiddleTalk, a listserv for middle school teachers that engages in middle level “shop talk.” Sign up here.

Join the gang going to NMSA’s Annual Conference by signing up at the Ning site and connecting with other Conference goers: NMSA08 Please do sign up and connect with other conference attendees. Of course, you’re always welcome to post here too . . .

There’s a new research document on counselors in middle schools and the importance they play in our students’ lives. The research summary details the importance of each student knowing one adult well and how to do that before the counselor’s role can become multifaceted. In a way, think of them being the ultimate super Advisory teacher first then counselor. Check it out here.

If you get a chance to visit Second Life, zip over to the ISTE island for their speaker series on Tuesdays & Thursdays. This Tuesday’s topic is Open Sim as Prototyping (TBA). It begins at 6:00 pm Pacific and is scheduled to end at 7:00 pm pst.

NMSA is looking for an editor! Tom Erb was honored at this year’s Annual conference with the John Lounsbury award for his many years of service to middle schools as editor of the Middle Journal.